October 21, 2016
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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Jessica Temple undertook a presentation at the Arkansas Environmental Federation Convention entitled Non-Stormwater NPDES General Permits in the State of Arkansas (“Presentation”).
Ms. Temple is an engineer in the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) Office of Water Quality.
The Presentation undertook an analysis of various general permits (not including those associated with stormwater permitting) issued by the ADEQ Office of Water Quality. General permits authorize a category of discharges within a geographical area. They have been a key tool used in Clean Water Act stormwater permitting. However, they are also often utilized to authorize discharges associated with similar activities that can be addressed by the same limits, controls, monitoring, etc.
Ms. Temple noted that the Clean Water Act National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) regulations authorize ADEQ to issue general permits if there are a number of point sources that:
- Involve the same or substantially similar types of operations
- Discharge the same types of waste
- Require the same effluent limitations or operating conditions
- Require the same or similar monitoring requirements; and
- In the opinion of the ADEQ Director, are more appropriately controlled under a general permit than an individual permit
ADEQ assigns a tracking number starting with “ARG” for such permits. A Notice of Coverage is issued once the permit is developed.
The current non-stormwater general permits issued by ADEQ include:
- Sanitary Landfill Runoff
- Non-Contact Cooling Water, Cooling Tower Blowdown, or Boiler Blowdown
- Aggregate Facility
- Individual Treatment Facility
- Water Treatment Facility
- Hydrostatic Testing Discharge
- Car and Truck Wash
- Groundwater Cleanup Units
- Pesticide Discharges
Also discussed was the ADEQ website. The discussion reviewed the areas of the website addressing the Office of Water Quality, permitting and in particular the sections providing general permit information.
Copies of Ms. Temple’s presentation slides can be downloaded here.
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